Amazon Web Services · 2026 Edition
A complete preparation guide written by Amazon Web Services-certified engineers. Covers the exam format,all 6 blueprint domains, a week-by-week study plan, and proven tips for passing first time.
4–6 months
Prep time
Advanced
Difficulty
75
Exam questions
750/1000
Pass mark
Exam code
DOP-C02
Full name
AWS DevOps Engineer Professional
Vendor
Amazon Web Services
Duration
180 minutes
Questions
75 items
Passing score
750/1000 (scaled)
Domains covered
6 blueprint domains
Recommended experience
AWS Developer Associate or SysOps Associate required; 2+ years of AWS DevOps experience
Typical prep time
4–6 months
DOP-C02 earns the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional designation. It is the highest-level AWS operations and automation credential, validating advanced CI/CD pipeline design, infrastructure as code, and resilience engineering skills.
Job roles this opens
Domain percentage weights are not currently available for this exam. The checklist below is still useful for planning your study.
Weeks 1–3
SDLC Automation: CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodeArtifact, CodeStar
Tip: DOP-C02 tests multi-account and cross-region pipeline design. Know how CodePipeline actions can deploy to multiple AWS accounts, how to use CodeArtifact as a secure dependency proxy, and how CodeDeploy hooks (BeforeAllowTraffic, AfterAllowTraffic) implement custom validation logic during blue/green deployments.
Weeks 4–5
Configuration Management and IaC: CloudFormation, AWS CDK, OpsWorks, Systems Manager
Tip: CloudFormation advanced features are heavily tested: StackSets (deploy stacks across multiple accounts/regions), Nested Stacks (modular reusable templates), Change Sets (preview before deploying), and DeletionPolicy (Retain/Snapshot/Delete for stateful resources). Know when each feature is used.
Weeks 6–8
Monitoring, Logging and Observability: CloudWatch, X-Ray, AWS Health, EventBridge
Tip: Composite CloudWatch alarms aggregate multiple alarms into a single alarm state. Know that composite alarms support AND/OR logic and can prevent alarm storms by suppressing individual alarms until a parent condition is met — this is a common DOP-C02 architecture scenario.
Weeks 9–12
Incident Response, HA, and Governance: Service Catalog, Config, Security Hub, GuardDuty, Lambda automation
Tip: AWS Service Catalog allows organisations to create approved product portfolios that developers can self-service deploy. Know the difference between a Product (a CloudFormation template), Portfolio (collection of products), and Launch Constraints (IAM role used during provisioning regardless of the requester's permissions).
DOP-C02 is scenario-heavy with long question stems. The right answer is almost always the one that is most automated, most scalable, and uses native AWS services rather than custom scripts or third-party tools.
Blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy and ECS: the load balancer shifts traffic from the blue (current) task set to the green (new) task set. Know the traffic shifting options: Canary (small %, then rest), Linear (equal increments over time), AllAtOnce (instant). Each has different rollback trigger implications.
CloudFormation drift detection identifies resources that have changed outside of CloudFormation management. Know that drift detection compares the stack's expected vs actual resource configuration and that it does not automatically remediate drift — you must act on the results.
Multi-account AWS architecture: AWS Organizations, SCPs (Service Control Policies to restrict what member accounts can do), and AWS Control Tower (managed landing zone with guardrails). Know the difference between SCPs (restrict maximum permissions) and IAM policies (grant permissions).
Auto Scaling termination policies affect which instances are terminated during scale-in. Know the default termination policy: terminate oldest launch template first, then oldest launch configuration, then instance closest to billing hour. Custom termination policies (e.g. terminate unhealthy instances first) are also testable.
Apply everything in this guide with adaptive practice questions, detailed answer explanations, and domain analytics.
Deep-dive explanations of the key topics tested on DOP-C02 — with exam key points and common misconceptions.